Wednesday, January 6, 2010

GERRIT RIETVELD

Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1965) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. A principal member of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair, his Zig Zag chair, and the Rietveld Schröder House. Built in Utrecht on the Prins Hendriklaan 50, the house has a conventional ground floor, but is radical on the top floor, lacking fixed walls but instead relying on sliding walls to create and change living spaces. The design seems like a three-dimensional realization of a Mondrian painting. The house is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Rietveld broke with the 'De Stijl' in 1928 and became associated with a more functionalist style of architecture known as either Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen. Rietveld built hundreds of homes, many of which in the city of Utrecht. His designs are reproduced today by Cassina and Rietveld-by-Rietveld, an initiative in part by Egbert Rietveld grandson of Rietveld.